Serif PagePlus

File Format
Name	Serif PagePlus
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Document Desktop Publishing Serif PagePlus
Extension(s)	.ppp, .ppx, .ppb
PRONOM	fmt/671, others
Released	1991

PagePlus released by Serif is a desktop publishing application for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Serif was created with the merger of SPC and Allegro New Media in 1997.Serif has depreciated the PagePlus software in favor of the new Affinity titles, final version was X9.

File Information

PagePlus PPP files are incompatible with the new Affinity Publisher & Designer software. PagePlus uses extensions PPX for templates and PPB for Book publications.

File Version Information

• Versions 1-3 Binary format
• Versions 4-X2 OLE2 container format
• Versions X3-X9 ZIP container format

OLE2 vs. XML Based Format

PagePlus X3 uses a new XML based format using root tag <SerifXML>, enabling PagePlus versions from X3 onwards to open documents made in later versions.

Compressed Internal Objects

Some objects inside the PPP OLE2 file may be compressed. In version 9.03 for example, the file titled 'contents' is compressed, with the following file header suggesting this:

20 00 00 80 43 6F 6D 70 72 65 73 73 69 6F 6E 46 69 6C 65 00 EE 11 00 00 79 47 00 00 02 00 02 00

Which translates to:

...€CompressionFile.î...yG......

The existence of these compressed objects makes it difficult to penetrate the file type to retrieve information such as the user content. This may be considered a preservation risk without further information from a specification or a reverse engineering exercise.

Sample Files

• Sample .PPP files in the UK Web Archive
• Sample .PPP file at Archives New Zealand
• Sample .PPP file at Archives New Zealand

Software

• Serif Legacy Software download
• Serif PagePlus 3.0
• PagePlus Intro Version (1994)

See Also

• Wikipedia:Serif_products#Serif_PagePlus
• Wikipedia:PagePlus
• Serif PagePlus official site (depreciated)